Armored Fist of Ilmater- FS(12),M(4),Pal(4),SF(10)
=Description= This is a somewhat unorthodox build. One way to look at it, is that its a Sacred Fist, with low wisdom, in heavy armor and shield. The other way, is that its really a favored soul, with unarmed strike and Epic Divine Might. Unlike most other Sacred Fist builds, this one is best used with Heavy Armor and Shield, as it has low Dex and Wis. In theory you may ask: Why Monk, when FS already grants improved unarmed strike? Well, a single level of monk makes tumble a class skill, and grants access to monk boots (for 3+5 = 8 to AC, compared with +1 to AC for putting points into Tumble Cross class). This boost makes up somewhat for the loss of Divine Shield compared with the likes of the Divine Soul. Monks also get Spot as a class skill, letting you max Spot to protect against Feinters and HiPS. Additionally it gives you stunning fist without needing to meet the Wis 13 and Dex 13 prerequisites, and lets you put your precious stat points to Str and Cha. This Build was originally designed for PvP, to act as a counter against disarming High Strength Warriors. To this end, it uses a modest unarmed Strike, amped up with Epic Divine Might and the various Favored Soul buffs. However, as with all my other builds, it is suitable for campaign play should you feel the urge to play an Armored Monk channelling Epic Divine Might going up against MoTB's last boss. The Sacred Fist levels means that it should not use a weapon at all, even if a great one is available. A similiar (and in some respects, superior) build to this that can use weapons would be the Divine Soul. There are actually 2 variants of this build. One using Paladin and one using Blackguard. However, I would not go so far as to call them "good"and "evil" variants, because the Blackguard variants needs to start out as Lawful Good, to meet the alignment requirements. Therefore it would be more appropriate to call them Armored Fist of Ilmater, and Armored Fist of the Fallen. =Armored Fist of Ilmater= The Strong Right Hand of the Crying God... literally Favored soul 12 / Monk 4 / Paladin 4 / Sacred fist 10 Pros: *Decent warrior with Fair strength, Favored Soul buffs and Deflect Arrows *26 BAB for a natural 6 Attacks per Round. *Able to deal high damage using Epic Divine Might *Good Saves, with Favored Soul/Monk and Divine Blessing, and Evasion *Reasonable AC with Full plate and Shield, and Monk Boots and Tumble *Usable under any magic setting *Fully viable from start to finish, with no multiclass penalty. Spare Skill points may be put into Diplomacy, making this Campaign playable. Or into Spot (Monk Class skill) for PvP *Cannot be Disarmed and can max Spot to protect against Feinters (for PvP) Cons: *Favored Soul Level 24 caster- your buffs are easily dispelled *Horrible Wisdom, and hence offensive Spell DC *Sacred Fist means you are primarily reliant on unarmed strike. If you use a weapon, you take a huge -8 penalty to hit. No weapons means you can't use materials to bypass damage reduction among other things. You are entirely reliant on Monk Gloves as a weapon, and you will be in trouble if no good ones are available. In this respect, the Divine Soul is superior. Good vs Fallen *Good Pros: **Slightly Higher BAB (Good 26 vs Fallen 25) **Luck of Heroes (whereas Fallen has to spend the feat on cleave) **Aura of Courage **Slightly More Skill points *Fallen Pros: **Higher Caster Level (Fallen 27 vs Good 24) **Aura of Despair Variants *One possible Variant involves lowering Monk and Raising Favored Soul, while keeping Sacred Fist at 10 and Paladin at 4. This can be done to varying degrees, and nets you higher caster level at the varying cost. **3 Monk / 13 Favored Soul: Caster Level improves by 1 to 25, but BAB falls to 25. This is suitable if your Caster Level is more important than your BAB for whatever reason (e.g. To overcome enemy Spell Resistance, and to boost your own SR from spells) **2 Monk / 14 Favored Soul: Caster Level improves by 2 to 26, and this also Boosts DC by 1. BAB falls to 25. Multiclass penalty applies. This may be used in campaigns / PWs, if you are willing to swallow the multiclass penalty. But the most ideal situation for it would be in PvP arenas where you start at level 30. The higher caster level and DC will stop Greater Dispel, and help your overcome Drow/Deep Gnome Spell Resistance. At the same time, you can change race to Drow, and drop the Great Cha feats, and instead rely on the Drow Cha bonus to meet EDm requirements. **1 Monk / 15 Favored Soul: Caster Level improves by 3 to 27, and this boosts DC by 1. You also gain a 3rd Favored Soul Energy Resistance. BAB falls to 25 and you lose Evasion and Deflect Arrows. Multiclass penalty Applies. The loss of Evasion and Deflect Arrows is harsh. I would not recommend taking it this far. Character Creation Race: Human Alignment: Lawful Good Stats BAB: 26 HP: (12*8) + (4*8) + (4*10) + (10*8) +30 con bonus= 278 Saves Fort: 8 + 4 + 4 + 7 = 23 +1 Con Will: 8 + 4 + 1 + 3 = 16 -1 wis Reflex: 8 + 4 + 1 + 7 = 20 +1 dex +5 from Divine Grace or Dark Blessing (or more with +Cha equipment) +6 against spells with Spellcraft And Evasion Overview Feats Character Feats 1. Luck of Heroes 1. Able Learner 3. Power Attack 6. Divine Might 9. Combat Casting 12. Extend Spell 15. Blindfight 18. Practiced Spellcaster: Favored Soul 21. Persist spell 23. Great Strength 25. Great Strength 27. Great Charisma 29. Epic Divine Might *At FS 1, 3, and 12, this gains Weapon proficiency, focus and specialization, with his Deity's favored weapon. You therefore want to pick a Deity with unarmed strike as his/her Favored Weapon. Deities with Unarmed Strike as a favored weapon include Ilmater, Sharess and Malar. And as a Lawful Good Paladin, you will want to pick Ilmater. *Extend and Persistent Spell are needed for your Favored Soul buffs. *EDM adds +10 damage per hit for 9 rounds *Get +9 Cha equipment to boost EDM to +20 damage per attacks for 19 rounds, and another +5 to all saves. *This also gains 2 elemental DR at FS 5 and 10. One of your main defensive buffs is Stone Body which provides Electric Immunity, so you don't want to pick electricity as one of your Resistances. For NWN2 OC/MoTB and similiar high magic settings I would recommend Sonic Resistance, as Sonic Resistance gear is hard to come by. Acid Resistance gear is also comparatively rare and would be a good choice. Skills: *This only has 4 skill points per level. *The must-have skills are: **Concentration **Spellcraft **Tumble *You can max out 1 more Class Skill of your choice. (Diplomacy for Modules and Campaigns, Spot for PvP) *Your Monk and Sacred Fist levels provide +2 skill points per level (compared with the 2 points that Favored Souls and Blackguard recieves). Taking Monk on 1st level provides you with 8 bonus points, so you gain an extra 8 + (13 * 2) = 34 skill points. *Of these extra, you need to invest 8 points in Lore to unlock Sacred Fist. That leaves you with 26 points to spend as you wish. For PvP, it may help to put them into Listen. For Campaigns, you can throw them into something like UMD. Character Progression Levelling Notes *You have a some flexibility in Levelling. You need to ensure is that you take paladin 4 at or before level 18 for Divine Might. You also need to keep your 2 lowest classes within 1 level of each other. =Armored Fist of the Fallen= The Dark Side calls, reach your hand out and grasp its power! Favored soul 15 / Monk 2 / Blackguard 3 / Sacred fist 10 Not all who hear Ilmater's call to become an Armored fist stay the path. Some fall and turn to Darker sources of power. Pros: *Favored Soul Level 27 caster- only a full arcane caster can dispel your buffs *Decent warrior with Medium BAB, Fair strength and Favored Soul buffs *Also has Aura of Despair and Deflect Arrows *Able to deal high damage using Epic Divine Might *Good Saves, with Favored Soul/Monk and Dark Blessing, and Evasion *Reasonable AC with Full plate and Shield, and Monk Boots and Tumble *Usable under any magic setting *Fully viable from start to finish, with no multiclass penalty. Spare Skill points may be put into Diplomacy, making this Campaign playable. Or into Spot (Monk Class skill) for PvP *Cannot be Disarmed and can max Spot to protect against Feinters (for PvP) Cons: *Horrible Wisdom, and hence offensive Spell DC *Default Deities do not include a Lawful Evil one with Unarmed Strike, therefore some alignment shifting is necessary to achieve this build in the OC. Good vs Fallen *Good Pros: **Slightly Higher BAB (Good 26 vs Fallen 25) **Luck of Heroes (whereas Fallen has to spend the feat on cleave) **Aura of Courage **Slightly More Skill points *Fallen Pros: **Higher Caster Level (Fallen 27 vs Good 24) **Aura of Despair Character Creation Race: Human Alignment: Lawful Good for first 14 levels, shifting to any Evil Stats BAB: 25 HP: (15*8) + (2*8) + (3*10) + (10*8) +30 con bonus= 276 Saves Fort: 9 + 3 + 3 + 7 = 22 +1 Con Will: 9 + 3 + 1 + 3 = 16 -1 wis Reflex: 9 + 3 + 1 + 7 = 20 +1 dex +5 from Divine Grace or Dark Blessing (or more with +Cha equipment) +6 against spells with Spellcraft And Evasion Overview Feats Character Feats 1. Able Learner 1. Power Attack 3. Cleave 6. Extend Spell 9. Practiced Spellcaster Favored Soul 12. Combat Casting 15. Blindfight 18. Divine Might 21. Persist spell 23. Great Strength 25. Great Strength 27. Great Charisma 29. Epic Divine Might *Extend and Persistent Spell are needed for your Favored Soul buffs. *EDM adds +10 damage per hit *Get +9 Cha equipment to boost EDM to +20 damage per attacks, and another +5 to all saves. *This also gains 3 elemental DR at FS 5, 10, and 15. One of your main defensive buffs is Stone Body which provides Electric Immunity, so you don't want to pick electricity as one of your Resistances. For NWN2 OC/MoTB and similiar high magic settings I would recommend Sonic Resistance, as Sonic Resistance gear is hard to come by. Acid Resistance gear is also comparatively rare and would be a good choice. Effect of Changing Deities on Weapon Feats You obtain the Weapon proficiency, Focus and Specialization Feats for you deity's favored weapon at Favored Soul 1, 3 and 12 respectively. However, when you change alignment too drastically, you also change deity, which affects which is your deity's favored weapon. The Weapon feat you recieve is based on which is your current Deity when you attain the feat-giving Favored Soul level. And you keep this feat even after you change Deity. E.g. Lets say you start of as a Favored Soul of Kelemvor. This gives you exotic weapon proficiency, as Kelemvor's favored weapon is the bastard sword. Lets say you switch Deities and adopt Malar as your chosen Deity next, and his Favored Weapon is Unarmed Strike. You still retain Exotic Weapon proficiency. If you hit level 3 with Malar as your chosen deity, you gain Weapon Focus unarmed Strike. Lets say you switch deities again, this time to Tyr, you still retain Exotic weapon proficiency and Weapon Focus unarmed strike. If you reach Favored Soul 12 while Tyr is your Deity, you gain Weapon Specialization Longsword. To this End, you want Weapon Focus Unarmed Strike at FS 3, and Weapon Specialization Unarmed Strike at FS 12. (Your Deity at Favored Soul 1 is less important, as Monk already grants you improved unarmed strike). There are several ways to accomplish this, and the outline below is just one possibility *Start as Lawful Good, with Ilmater as your God. Monk has Lawful as a requirement, and there is no lawful deity besides Ilmater with favored weapon unarmed strike *Stay Lawful Good while for 14 levels (monk 2 / Favored Soul 12). This nets you Weapon focus and specialization Unarmed Strike. *At level 15, take your first Sacred Fist level, and start acting evil *Shift to Any evil within level 15. You no longer need to be concerned about who your deity is as you already have all your weapon feats. *From levels 16-18, take Blackguard. Take Divine might at Blackguard 3 on level 18. *From levels 19 on, you are free to adopt any alignment (and deity) you deem fit, as your remaining Favored Soul and Sacred Fist levels have no more alignment requirements. *Incidentally, this is also the start of MoTB, so you can generate this build in a trainer, export him to MoTB, and play from there on as you see fit, with no alignment concerns. Skills: *This only has 4 skill points per level. *The must-have skills are: **Concentration **Spellcraft **Tumble *You can max out 1 more Class Skill of your choice. (Diplomacy for Modules and Campaigns, Spot for PvP) *Your Monk and Sacred Fist levels provide +2 skill points per level (compared with the 2 points that Favored Souls and Blackguard recieves). Taking Monk on 1st level provides you with 8 bonus points, so you gain an extra 8 + (11 * 2) = 30 skill points. *Of these extra, you need to invest 5 points in Hide to unlock Blackguard, and 8 points in Lore to unlock Sacred Fist. That leaves you with 17 points to spend as you wish. For PvP, it may help to put them into Listen. Character Progression Levelling Notes *You have several alignment requirements to meet. Firstly you have to start as Lawful to grab Monk. Secondly you need to have a Deity with Favored Weapon unarmed strike. Its not easy to plan, but there are certainly other alternatives than the one presented above, especially if you have a custom pantheon. Category:Character builds Category:Melee Character builds Category:Divine Character builds Category:Power Builds